Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in French and to understand and respond to its speakers both in speech and in writing.
The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure all pupils:
To understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of sources.
To speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions and continually improving accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
To write a varying length for different purposes and audiences using the variety of grammatical structures they have learnt.
When children leave St John’s, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore other countries, cultures and languages accepting that in a multi-lingual society it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language. They will be engaged and prepared to continue language learning at secondary school.
At St John’s Primary Academy, children have lessons in French throughout Key Stage 2. This takes place every other term using the Salut programme of study. Areas covered include numbers, colours, animals, family, food, weather and hobbies.
Provision for SEND is evident with the learning being adjusted to be accessible to all by maintaining an inclusive learning environment, managing peer relationships and working with additional adults.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
Observing children speaking and listening in French
Key questions
Marking of written learning.
Interviewing the children about their learning (pupil voice).
Learning walks
Subject tracking.
The subject leader will monitor the impact the teaching of French is having on the children’s learning through book scrutiny to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is being taught. They will ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited and that the learners are able to apply the skills they have been taught to a variety of different settings, showing independence with their learning. Impact will also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons.